Abstract
In this chapter, we draw on a 5-year interventionist professional development study that we conducted with a group of middle-school mathematics teachers in the United States. The fifth and final year of the study involved a performance assessment in which the teachers collectively designed an instructional unit on statistics that aimed both to build on what they learned in the professional development group and to address the objectives for middle-school statistics prescribed by the standards and objectives for mathematics in their states. This performance assessment provided a window into the teachers’ documentation work, especially on the resources they needed to engage in this type of design work effectively. We draw on this case to problematize the rhetoric of teachers as instructional designers. In doing so, we question the common assumption that groups of teachers are capable of designing coherent instructional sequences from provided materials immediately and without ongoing support. We illustrate that teachers becoming effective instructional designers and the associated professionalization of teaching are significant accomplishments.
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Notes
- 1.
Presented study was a part of a larger research project. The research team included the authors, Kay McClain, Teruni Lamberg, Qing Zhao, Melissa Gresalfi, Lori Tyler, and Jose Cortina.
- 2.
The first of the instructional sequences focused on supporting students to reason about univariate distributions and the second about bivariate distributions.
- 3.
- 4.
The activities designed to support these changes included conversations about the supports and constraints available to teachers in their schools, principals’ understanding of effective mathematics teaching, and how the group could support principals in developing more productive views and in valuing teachers’ professional judgment.
- 5.
Students’ reasoning appeared to be irrelevant to high quality mathematics instruction as it was defined within the district, in terms of content coverage and classroom management.
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Acknowledgments
The preparation of this chapter was supported in part by the US National Science Foundation under grant No. ESI 0554535 and by The University of Queensland under NSRSU grant No. 2009002594. The findings and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.
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Visnovska, J., Cobb, P., Dean, C. (2011). Mathematics Teachers as Instructional Designers: What Does It Take?. In: Gueudet, G., Pepin, B., Trouche, L. (eds) From Text to 'Lived' Resources. Mathematics Teacher Education, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1966-8_17
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